50mm f/1.8 ugly brokeh

Tis true my friends
This crappy bokeh is the cause of constant eternal struggle. Can't live with it, can't live without it. I just can't part with 300 bucks for 50/1.4 and at the same time I hate it when a picture gets ruined because of the bokeh...

So, I constantly change them... This friday I received my FOURTH 50/1.8 from Dante

It's only a matter of time before it hits the marketplace again.

I think one needs to learn when to use it. IE: whenever there's contrast in the scene, don't use it

Cheers

yeah, your right Doc,
I had those nasty looking circles in a few shots, but I just put them in photoshop, and used the swirl and blur tools to round them out a bit.
A little photoshop work doesn't really hurt, but it still can't replace the effect of more blades, but it's a 80 dollar lens, so I don't even bother to complain about it.

For 80 bucks.... blah, it's not worth me complaining about.

Noink has 50/1.8 with 7 blades and an actual distance scale.

Pisses me off so much

It ain't the blades. It's the double-gauss lens formula, which is to corrected for spherical aberration. Leave a bit (just a bit) of uncorrected SA on top of a sharp image, and the image will still be sharp though it will lose a little MTF performance, but the out-of-focus highlights, instead of having ugly bright edges, will have faded edges. You can't fix the bright-edge problem with aperture blades, only the shape of those spots. Lenses that provide bright-edge bokeh usually also suffer from double-line bokeh.

It's pretty typical for double-gauss designs typical of normal lenses.

Here's a shot made with a Ukrainian 120mm lens in medium format--a short telephoto. It's also a double-gauss design. It's the reason I no use Sonnars for images that will have significant out of focus areas.

The 50/1.4 ought to be better just because it's faster. And Canon may have changed the formula a bit--it does have an additional element over the 1.8. The answer is to use a wider aperture and go softer, or a narrower aperture and pull it into the depth of field. Or, fix it in Photoshop, heh, heh.

Andythaler wrote:
Take a look here for examples of the bokeh of the 2 lenses.

They both show bright-edge bokeh typical of double-gauss lens designs. The only difference is that the 1.8 has polygonal spots intead of round spots. This would not be a problem wide open, of course. And in my view, it ain't much of a problem anyway. Take away the bright edge (which has nothing to do with the aperture blades), and the shape of the spot won't be so obvious.

Rick "who has lenses with excellent bokeh that also have relatively few blades" Denney

I have both lenses... I'll have to do some comparisons... I will say though, in the picture with the lady's face, you can pretty well see pentagonal shapes in the bright areas...

Adam

Rick... but then my russian helios 58/2 is also a gaussian design, but the bokeh is WAY better in it.

What gives?

I'll check into that. But I'll bet the Helios is not a double-gauss design, but rather a Tessar or modified Tessar design. I know just who to ask...

Rick "who bets that it is not as well correct against spherical aberration in any case" Denney

The above statement is correct...
The nearer the blades are to a circle (more blades the nearer it is to a circle) the rounder and better the bokeh... Another thing that helps bokeh is the use of wide apertures... Strong front light and small apertures show the blades shape more predominantly than normal light and wide apertures... I have both lenses and the f/1.4 shows better bokeh at f/1.8 than the f/1.8 does wide open but a touch more distortion at the minimum focusing distance... What you gain on the roundabout you lose on the swig...

Not trying to throw stones, but I am much more impressed with my Tamron's bokeh.

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I've got one of those too, the 7 blade diaphragm does give good bokeh... The 8 blades of the EF f/1.4 gives better bokeh than the 5 blades of the f/1.8 MKII though and slightly better than the Tamron at 50mm because it has 1 more blade and a wider aperture...

Both the EF85 F/1.8 and the EF85 F/1.2 have 8 blades and produce great bokeh, of all the lenses I have had the opportunity to use the EF85 F/1.2 is the king... IMHO the best boke'd lens in the world...

Maybe next year around tax time I will spring for a 85 1.2.. depending on where I am financially.

I've never in my life seen bokeh like the 200mm 1.8. It was just ridiculous. But then again for the price and weight, it oughta be a Bokeh making machine!



Adam

Check THIS bokeh out (of my goofy dog in the yard...)

Adam Hicks wrote:
I've never in my life seen bokeh like the 200mm 1.8. It was just ridiculous. But then again for the price and weight, it oughta be a Bokeh making machine!



Adam

Check THIS bokeh out (of my goofy dog in the yard...)

Now that is silky smooth..
I would love to have that for some bokeh Candids..
lol..